Apparatuses, systems and methods for tilling agricultural fields are very well known in the art. Apparatuses typically comprise a cultivator frame having multiple and various tilling attachments attached thereto, laid out on the frame in a variety of patterns to maximize the desired tilling effect. The apparatus is dragged behind a vehicle during the tilling operation.
In particular, conservation tillage, or vertical tillage as it is sometimes called, has recently become a tilling strategy of choice in many instances. Conservation tillage minimally disturbs the soil prior to planting in order to allow air to penetrate the mat of crop residue left in the field from the previous harvest. Apparatuses, systems and methods for conservation tillage are known in the art, for example United States patents U.S. Pat. No. 7,762,345 issued Jul. 27, 2010, U.S. Pat. No. 8,113,295 issued Feb. 14, 2012, U.S. Pat. No. 8,196,672 issue Jun. 12, 2012, U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,908 issued Nov. 13, 2012 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,909 issued Nov. 13, 2012, the entire contents of all of which are herein incorporated by reference.
A tillage apparatus may comprise various attachments for working a field including, for example, coulter wheels, chisel plows, V-shaped shovels, sub-soiling teeth, leveling attachments and other field working tools. The attachments are typically mounted on longitudinal or transverse frame-members of the cultivator frame either individually or in gangs. Coulter wheels are a particularly useful attachment for conservation tillage techniques. However, coulter wheels are typically mounted on the cultivator frame in a fixed position with no opportunity to adjust the entry angle of the wheel into the soil. This limits the versatility of the coulter wheels to efficiently till different soil types and through different soil conditions. Some attempts have been made to overcome this limitation, for example, the Gates Coulter Disk is a vertical tillage tool that is adjustable from 0 to 15 degrees around a single axis of rotation. While this provides some versatility, the angle adjustment is limited to rotation around a single axis providing limited gains in tilling versatility.
There remains a need in the art for more versatile angle adjustable coulter wheel assemblies.